The Tale of Drake
by EpicPwner333
Summary: In the land of Minecraftia, a young teen leaves his dull hometown and sets forth to find his place in the world. Travel with him as he survives deadly monsters, massive wars, insane adventures, and delves into his world's past like no other has ever done. This is a story of survival. Of friendship. Of finding one's destiny. This is The Tale of Drake.
1. A Player Named Drake

**Hey guys! EpicPwner333 here, and . . . I'm back! Now, if you don't enjoy long A/N's, then skip to the story by all means. A New Civilization WILL be continued. That story is close to my heart. The one before that . . . I can't even remember its name - it will be deleted. MineZ: Land of Terror I'm putting on hiatus. **

**My friends, this will be my greatest story yet. I make a solemn pledge to finish this by any means necessary. Someday in the future, I _will_ hit the "complete" button under this story. The chapters will be long - this one for example is +3,000 words long. **

**So there you have it. Tell me what you think. This story will have many interesting twists and turns that I will throw your way - so be prepared.**

**It's time for The Tale Of Drake**

A harsh light settled over a small town in Minecraftia. A faded, aged sign announced to anyone who cared that they were in Filsborough, a mining community in the rolling hills around the main cities of Minecraftia. The one problem with this claim was that the hills had long been stripped of their precious ores and minerals. This once thriving, charming little town was dying out. This wasn't by any destructive means, however; most of the kids growing up left the town for the outside world. Slowly but surely, this town would be reduced to an abandoned pile of looted buildings.

In the tiny Town Square, almost the entire population of the town was gathered to send off a newly-grown up teenager. He stood proudly with his mother, who was is old age and obviously was having a hard time standing up. His mother is unimportant, and she was to die several days after her son's departure. The young man is _very_ important, however. He stood at a good six feet, tall for his age. Of course he didn't really know that; he grew up in a time where the closest anyone in the town was to his age was almost five years his senior. To say he was a lonely child would be a gross understatement.

He had jet black hair that was sloppily combed, and it was fairly long. He wore a simple brown t-shirt, and the rugged, all-purpose blue jeans that almost everyone in Minecraftia used. He hefted a medium-sized backpack, and had a plain-looking iron sword attached to his belt. Of greater use to him in these peaceful areas was his again, plain stone pickaxe that was tied to his pack. After a morning of celebration and partying, he finally walked out of the village. He didn't particularly regret it; life had boring and tedious, and his only family left, his mom, was about to die. Everyone knew it, and he didn't even try and deny it. He had already made peace with his mom, said a long and tearful goodbye, and he failed to leave a single burden behind in Filsborough. He was ready, even eager to get away from his birthplace.

His name was Thomas Drake.

* * *

Drake was a miner, like most players in Minecraftia. He nevertheless liked to take walks into the forest as a kid, and was equally at home in the cool stillness of the trees as he was in the dark, putrid mineshafts where he had toiled to find the last vestiges of ore veins that remained in the town limits. Any iron they managed to find was generally of poor quality anyways, but this sword was better than most that the relatively incompetent town blacksmith had clumsily forged.

He had visited the nearby city of Ragonsworth a few times in his life, mostly to trade whatever supplies they had on hand for needed materials. The city could barely be called that, with only around 789 players calling it home. Version 2.5 had allowed for emerald shards and gold coins in addition with emeralds for currency, and he carried quite a few shards in his pack. "Version 2.5" was just a term for these new eras of knowledge that the inhabitants (called players) of Minecraftia had dubbed. Every so often, the King of Minecraftia was supposedly summoned by Notch (a.k.a God) to be told of new things that were possible. The records were kept all the way back to Version 1.9, and there the books abruptly ended.

The city was surrounded by a simple wooden wall, and in the center of a haphazard crowd of simple houses and shops was a largest man-made mound of dirt that had a stone tower on top – in effect, the "castle" that protected the city. It was the 22nd largest city in civilized Minecraftia. A small wooden tower in the north of the city marked the location of the Kingdom Outpost, the representation of the Minecraftia central government. Five Royal Guards resided there, augmenting the rag-tag, part-time militia of almost 100 random players who lived in or around Ragonsworth. It wasn't needed of course – the city was deep in the safe, peaceful territory of the Kingdom.

As Drake strolled through the gate of the city, he stopped to take in the sights and smells. It was still the biggest collection of players and houses he had ever seen in his life. He'd barely been walking for an hour and half down the gravel road before he'd reached Ragonsworth. He didn't plan on staying long, though. Just a quick overnight stay, maybe a bit of shopping for some better gear, and he was taking the ferry down the river to the larger cities and get a job mining, perhaps. Maybe he'd even sign on with one of those adventurers who sailed ships across oceans in search of . . . well, anything really. As for shopping for better gear, almost anything here was better than the shoddy supplies he carried from Filsborough.

As if to prove his point to himself, he spied a wealth of tools and clothing through a shop window. He waltzed through the doors, wide-eyed at the wealth around him on the walls. Not even the mayor of his old town had this much stuff in his possession. His reverie was interrupted by the voice of the shopkeeper.

"You here to buy something, or are you just gonna keep staring at my wares?" the gruff, aged man at the counter inquired.

"Sorry…" Drake muttered, wondering what to get.

After almost fifteen minutes of slowly wandering around the shop, drawing an uncomfortable stare from the shopkeeper, Drake selected a pair of rugged-looking leather boots, a water bottle, a cheap compass, a fedora, a small diamond shard necklace that caught his eye, and a bandana. All in all, he had to pay thirteen emerald shards for the items. Next, he searched out and found the cheapest inn in town. He only had to give up a single, measly emerald shard to stay a night in one of its cramped rooms, leaving him with thirty-five shards. Sleep came easily to him, as he had always had an uncanny ability to sleep very easily, anywhere.

He couldn't wait to see what tomorrow would bring.

* * *

It was a beautiful morning, he realized as he looked out his grimy window, recently woken up. The Ragonsworth was already wide awake, and the sound of hundreds of people going about their daily business resounded in his head. Hammers clanging off anvils in forges, animals pulling carts around, people talking and yelling to each other, the roar of fires in the charcoal factory, _everything_. He was sure he would never really get used to that noise.

Time to leave, hopefully. He sat down for a quick breakfast of a slice of bread that he had in his backpack from Filsborough, and a few minutes later he was out of the inn and walking towards the waterfront. Ragonsworth was located on the Borhan River, like many of the major cities in Minecraftia. The Borhan River was fairly wide, and was the second longest/widest river in the area. It even connected that larger river, the Earhees River at one point with a canal. The water front, in fact, was the most developed and best-kept section of Ragonsworth.

Several dozen ships were tied up at the numerous docks, and the whole area was swarming with players offloading supplies, running about, and generally crowding the area. He'd changed his mind; he would and try and find a quick job in the town for some cash, and then start out for the great port city of Delorees and then decide what to do there. Two more cities were in his path, and the cost of food and ferries was enough to drive him to seek a job. He didn't want to become tied down anywhere. He wanted to wander, to seek out adventure, to make up for all those years spent wasting away in his hometown.

The waterfront wasn't just the center of shipping and commerce in Ragonsworth; it was also the center of practically everything else that went on in the city. Drake spotted a large stall in the center of the bustling area, with many people crowded around it. He walked up. A large sign announced to all that this was a place to sign up for a MineTex job in the nearby Gorgobad Mountains near Ragonsworth. Drake remembered them, as he had often stood staring at them in the distance in his hometown. Rumor was that those mountains still were full of ores and minerals, and that MineTex, a massive multi-city corporation, periodically sent huge teams of miners into the caves and old mineshafts to claim those resources.

Without a word, he walked up to the book and signed "Thomas Drake, 16, Filsborough" into the appropriate slots. He stepped back and headed for the group of people that the clerk pointed to. As he pushed his way through the crowd, he was surprised to see many angry looks. One man, a grizzled old miner, leaned in and whispered to him.

"You best not be goin' wit them. Those guys almost never come back."

Unsettled, Drake passed him without response and made his way over to the group of assembled MineTex employees. It was a mixed group, to say the least. A few players looked like locals, equipped with standard stone pickaxes, and what appeared to be cheap stone swords that were recently handed out by the company representative. At least they looked like they knew what they were doing; half the players there didn't seem to know at all what they were doing with the pickaxes. A few of those players were heavily armed and looked more like adventurers than miners. They were few and far between, though. Most looked like random noobs that had as much a right to be down in the mines and caves as they did in the middle of the Far Lands. Drake suddenly felt a lot better at his skill level.

Significantly, there was a decided lack of veteran, hardened lifelong miners in the group. Drake knew that such men and women were the backbone of any dangerous mining expedition. Equally adept with smashing ore veins to small chunks with a pickaxe as with fending off deadly monsters with their ever-present swords, each one was said to be worth at least five inexperienced noobs in the caves and mines. However, while Drake did notice a few, they were standing off to the side, watching the MineTex group and occasionally shaking their heads and casting piteous looks at them.

There were about 30 miners in all. Drake thought that was a bit much, but then he noticed other, similar groups all around. That brought the total MineTex presence in the mountains to almost 150 players in total. Drake concentrated on his "little" group. Something told him that he ought to seek out and find the best players and stick to them in the caves. In Filsborough, the old mineshafts had always been well lit and that provided monster spawning. However, Drake was aware that in unexplored caves and abandoned mineshafts, the extremely dark and unlit conditions were perfect for monsters to spawn. In fact, Drake probably knew more about monsters than any other person in the group. The famous _Guide to Deadly Monsters_ was his favorite book in the Filsborough library – reading was one of the bright points in his otherwise dull existence in his hometown.

Only five people caught his eye. The MineTex representative was one of them. He actually seemed somewhat experienced, and also seemed willing to get his hand dirty with his erstwhile subordinates. Two adults also looked fairly well-balanced, a male and female. They were talking to each other in low, subdued voices. Both had dirty, unkempt clothing, and had light brown hair. The next person was a noob who had an iron pickaxe, and that was the only reason that Drake noticed him. Drake figured that if the monsters got him, he ought to at least stay close to take the fallen man's nice pickaxe. The last was a girl around his age who while looked utterly hopeless with her MineTex-provided pickaxe, was taken to randomly twirling her thin, honed iron rapier around in tight circles. Needless to say, everyone kept their distance to the petite, fiery-looking redhead.

Before Drake had a chance to speak with any of them, the MineTex representative finally spoke up, and while doing so handed out free torches.

"Alright, listen up people. I'm gonna only say this once to you – so _listen!_ When we get down there, you may choose which cave entrance or old mineshaft to enter. It may seem that it will be crowded, but they will spread out greatly! _Stick together!_ Do it! Pick some comrades, and stay with them. We will mine until dusk. One quarter of your finds must be returned to MineTex as a fee for us letting you into our land."

A chorus of good-natured groans erupted from the assembled group, but anyone remotely familiar with working in companies like this knew that was a fantastic price. No one in their right mind would ever turn down an offer like that – and again, Drake's mind wandered back to how the veteran miners seemed to be avoiding this particular expedition. Not encouraging.

And so the massive column of players set out for the Gorgobad Mountains. Drake realized it was unlikely the MineTex representative would randomly accompany a complete stranger like him, so he focused on his other picks. He walked up to the couple.

"Hello," he said, unsure of how exactly to greet them as they marched along.

"Sup," the man said.

"Uh…I was sort of, um, wondering if you two would, er, like to accompany me in the mines. " Drake managed to stutter out.

The woman answered this one. "Sure, stranger. Wonderin' the same thing misself, really. I'm Priscilla, and this here's Gordon," she said as she extended her hand.

Drake awkwardly took it. "Uh thanks. I guess I'll go and see if anyone else will come with us. Um, bye, I guess? For now?" Drake mentally facepalmed as he quickly strode away.

Where was that girl? She had been around that MineTex supply cart just a few moments ago, Drake was sure. Players didn't just disappear like that…

His thoughts were interrupted as he rounded the corner of the cart, head scanning the veritable crowd of miners. He crashed straight into someone doing the same thing. The blow wasn't all that serious, but he was extremely startled, to say the least. Taking a step back, and stammering out profuse apologies, he realized two things.

The player he had run into was doing much the same thing; quickly apologizing and looking away. Second, that player was the redheaded girl he had been searching for. She was a good head shorter than he was, and was wearing much the same, practical clothing as he was. Jeans, a good t-shirt, and wearing a backpack.

"H-hello there. Sorry about that." He said.

"Oh, no no no. I should be the one sorry. I-I was looking for this guy who looked like he would be useful to be with in the mines-"

She stopped talking when she too realized the person she was talking to was the same she was describing. "Oh, wow…"

"Hey." Drake said grinning. "Guess what? I was about to say the same thing. Come on." He said, motioning with his hand to keep moving along with the column. She complied.

"Right. Um, as I was saying, I was hoping you could accompany me like that MineTex guys said to." She said.

"Cool." Drake said. A second later, he cringed and corrected himself, "I mean sure, I'd like that. Name's Thomas Drake by the way. First time with MineTex."

"Nice, um, my name's Marie Jacobs. I'm from the eastern cities." She replied.

"So, why did you choose me?" Drake inquired.

"Well, 'cause you were one of the only ones here who looked like they knew anything about how to use a pickaxe. That, by the way, is something I am truly terrible at." She said.

"I ought to look like that. Grew up a miner in the town of Filsborough."

"That's cool. I grew up in the city of Ducres on the Eastern Sea. Hey, I might suck at mining stuff, but I'll kick your butt at sword fighting any day." She smirked at him.

"Ducres, you said? Like, the capitol of the Rebel Command? The main opponent of our kingdom?" Drake asked, furrowing his brow.

"Yeah, yeah. I didn't say I was proud of it." She said, waving it off.

"…is this your first time in a cave? Or a mineshaft?" he asked.

"Perhaps. But trust, just stick behind me and all you'll have to do is step over the bodies of monsters after I'm done with them." She proudly boasted.

Drake darkened suddenly, surprising Marie. "There's more to surviving down there than being good at fighting," He laughed, "in fact, monsters will be the least of our worries down there."

"And I will leave that part completely to you." She said.

"Whatever. And here we are, by the way." He said as they reached the foot of the Gorgobad Mountains.

True to their word, Priscilla and Gordon were at the entrance of a nearby cave. Gordon gave him a lopsided, knowing smile at him and Marie that took Drake a few seconds to comprehend, and then respond to with a fierce glare.

Following in the footsteps of about 20 fellow MineTex miners, the four players descended slowly into the cool, dark depths of the caves.

**So, how was that? Better than my previous stories? Please, give me a review! Even if you just write "it was cool" or "nice" or even "meh", each and every one of your reviews will make a difference. There's no words that describe the feeling each time someone positively comments on my stories. Its really the main reason I keep writing here, on FanFiction. Through school, repeated failed stories, and all the crap life can throw at me, each review makes my day.**

***sniff***

**#emotional rant over**


	2. Enter the Mountain

**Holy crap. Um, this was a _long_ chapter. At 4,169 words, it's the longest ever in one of my stories. Told you I'd be back, though! I will finish this! Thanks for reading, and as always please review.**

**Oh, I almost forgot. Everyone applaud Chaos Reincarnate for his/her review! Thank you so much!  
**

As the light from the sun slowly petered out, Drake began to relax. This was his element. At least, more so than almost anyone else here. More than anything, Drake was extremely disturbed by the lack of caution the noobs and adventurers among them were showing. This actually was Drake's first time in a dangerous, unlit, and unexplored cavern, but he still knew the tips and tricks like any other decent miner. During his childhood, he had occasionally been taken down to well-mapped, well-lit caves in Filsborough, just to be shown the different dangers that could kill an unwary miner in these depths. It had been slow, cautious going even in those relatively "safe" caves, and in a dangerous one like this, everyone should be treading lightly. But no, they were talking loudly, joking, even _running_ at some points to get ahead and mine the ores. Marie seemed to notice them as well.

"Hey, um, are we gonna get something out of this, or what? 'Cause you are being very slow." she moaned.

That reminded Drake that Marie was still a noob down here. "No. Trust me, there will so many split-off passages and ravines in a large cave like this, we don't have to worry about those fools finding everything before us." he said.

"Yeah, but still, why are we going so slowly? This cave looks so solid and safe!" she whined.

Drake suddenly became animated and angry to her, something she certainly did not expect. "Listen up, I'm only trying to make sure you don't end up like everyone else here!" he hissed.

Marie frowned, and looked away. "Sorry…"

All the negative emotion evaporated from Drake. "Please, just listen to me. I shouldn't have said it that way…but please. Please, please, please, I am not exaggerating when I predict that at least half of these noobs will die or be injured at the end of this. I can see it in them – they have no right at all being down here." he pleaded with her.

"Fine, I'm listening."

"Thanks. Alright, there are several things that can kill you down here. First is gravel. See that wall of gravel over there?" he said, pointing at the spoken feature in the wall.

"Yeah…looks safe enough." Marie nodded.

"Wrong!" Drake exclaimed, earning a glare from his companion, "I mean, wrong as in that would kill you. Gravel is _much_ less stable than the stone. The slightest prod will often send it crashing down on top of you. And another thing – gravel is rather heavy. If you're buried, you'll probably die. Painfully."

Wide eyed, Marie stared at the gravel. "Sheesh, alright, I'll avoid gravel."

"Next, is dropping."

"Dropping…?"

"Dropping refer to when the room is dark, and perhaps you think you should put you torch on the _other_ side of the room, and as you walk across the floor – bam! You fall through a hole or something and either die from smashing into the ground, get injured, or get dropped into a crowd of unseen monsters."

"Yeesh. Anything else, 'sides the monsters, of course?"

"Yes. Lava. If you see lava, stay away. Just because you feel confident you won't randomly trip and fall into it does _not_ mean a monster won't push you in, or you might stand on loose gravel… lava has a million ways to kill you."

"I thought you only found diamonds near lava." Marie observed.

"Oh, good. You know a little about ore placement. The _only_ exception to the stay away from lava rule is if there are diamonds. But treat the area like it's filled with pressure plates and TNT."

"Kay. Thanks."

"And, true to my assumption, there's a split off passage." Drake observed triumphantly. "And no one has thought of going down it."

"Why not?"

"Because, all those fools want to do is go _down_. Down, down, down. That's where the diamonds are right? Near the bedrock."

Marie slowly nodded. "Then why aren't we going with them…?

"Too crowded. When diamonds are found, I've heard sometimes even fights break out over it. Plus, this way, it might even go deeper than the main cave."

Marie gave an evil grin. "Diamonds."

The pair entered the passageway. Drake noticed Priscilla and Gordon had ran off down the main cave, driven by that fanatical urge for diamonds that seemed to grip most of the miners.

Drake slowly brought out a torch, and lit it off the spark-strip on the side of his backpack. Light flooded the cave.

Marie gave him a glance. "Aren't you gonna give me one?"

"No, we need one of us to carry the torch while the other mines. It's impossible to properly wield a pickaxe while holding a torch in one hand. Plus, the torch-bearer can stand guard."

They continued to creep down the cave. Shadows danced across the walls around them, distorted shapes playing in the flickering light. Drake had often seen such displays in the mineshafts of Filsborough, but they still creeped him out. He could only imagine what Marie was going through. A load moan interrupted his reverie. _Guide to Deadly Monsters_ had been clear that loud moans were zombies. Nameless, rotten corpses, they hadn't ever been living humans. They just spawned into reality.

"Zombie." Marie whispered to him before Drake was able to say anything.

"I think I'll stay right behind you." he said, looking at her sword.

The pair stood perfectly still for a minute, listening to the strangely menacing sound of the shuffling feet of a lone zombie slowly approaching them. Marie nervously twirled her sword around while Drake glanced around, as if he was daring the walls of the cave to move. Drake imagined he could cut the tension in the air with his sword. The noise of the miners they had left behind receded into nothingness. Reality was narrowed was that horrible sound of the zombie's feet, unhurriedly scraping and dragging along the floor of the cave.

Now the zombie seemed to be right around the corner. Drake recalled this would be the first time he had ever seen a real, live – no, just real monster before. The thought occurred to him that he might want both hands to be free, so he jammed the torch into a crack in the stone wall, and unclipped his iron sword from his belt. Drake proceeded to hold awkwardly hold it out in front of him. He mentally cursed himself when he noticed his hands were shaking.

After what seemed like ages, the zombie finally shambled around the corner. While Drake just stood there, frozen in place, Marie took a step forward. The monster sluggishly began to move to attack the pair, but Marie was far ahead of the brainless creature; in one quick move, so fast Drake barely knew it happened, the zombie's head flew off and landed in the corner. The rest of the monster rapidly collapsed to the cold, stone floor.

Drake breathed a sigh of relief, but he didn't notice a second zombie that had crept up behind him unseen. Right at the last minute, he realized something was behind him, and quickly came to the logical conclusion that it was a fellow MineTex employee.

"Hey man-" Drake said as he turned around. Finally, at the last _last_ moment, Drake comprehended the fact that the figure that was about to reach and grab him was in fact only human in appearance, and even then just barely.

Startled and frightened, Drake ingloriously fell backwards onto his back to avoid the monster's lunge, and when Marie turned around to investigate the noise, she saw a look of pure, utter, unfiltered terror on her companion's face. Looking up, she was expecting to see a horrific monster of some otherworldly sort. Instead, she saw a simple zombie. Rolling her eyes, she took a step forward and stabbed her sword straight through the distracted zombie. She let it stand there for a few seconds, gasping and dying, before she kicked it off with one foot.

Drake had desperately scrambled backwards on all fours, and once the zombie fell to the floor he looked up. "I-Is it… dead?" he almost whispered to Marie.

Drake suddenly felt very self-conscious. He must have looked like a cowardly fool, he realized, and hastily got to his feet.

"Well that didn't go very well…" he started to say.

"A zombie? Pathetic. If you can't pull your own weight, then don't go near me." she spat, on impulse angry at his apparent lack of backbone.

"Hey, I've never actually seen one in my li-"

She started back up to the main shaft. "In fact, I bet that all your 'warnings' about mining you got from a book or something. No real miner is scared of a simple zombie."

Marie was so angry, she didn't look back until she had almost left the side passageway. When she did, she saw something she didn't expect, a sight that took her breath away. And not in a good, awe-inspiring way.

Drake was still walking down the passageway. And his left side was cut open and bleeding profusely. Marie was sure the zombie hadn't hurt him…and it struck her. His sword was covered in blood. She was about to head back and apologize to him for her spur-of-the-moment insult that may have been deeply insulting to the miner, but then she heard an excited cry from down the main cave.

"Diamonds!"

And she completely forgot about Drake, for the moment.

Drake was seething at himself. The first time he had seen a monster – and look how badly he had screwed it up! A small voice in the back of his head told him that he shouldn't be taking this so hard, but Marie's comments had hit him hard. He was about to slice himself again, but he retained enough self-control to realize that this painful action would fail to accomplish anything.

Maybe Marie would change her opinion of him if he found enough ore, his mind thought. He swiped his torch from its place on the wall, and disregarding everything he had recently instructed to Marie, he rushed headlong down the passageway.

A second later, he stopped himself. He didn't do this because he remembered that blindly rushing through dark caverns was a very bad idea; no, he saw some light brown specks in the wall.

Iron. And good quality iron by the looks of it. He set his torch down and swung his stone pickaxe at the precious ore. Slowly but surely, cracks began to appear in the surface of the wall. The vein iron ore was inside the stone, but as the stone's structure was broken up by and therefore weakened by the ore inside, it slowly crumbled away to reveal the iron. Forgetting everything that had happened so far, Drake gleefully grabbed the iron ore and threw it into his mostly-empty backpack.

A total of 7 iron ingot's worth of ore went into the pack. Spirits greatly lifted, Drake continued onwards, albeit at a slower and more cautious rate. He briefly stopped to collect a small coal vein, and ended up with 14 lumps of good coal. He knew that coal would fetch a good price back in Ragonsworth. The basic charcoal everyone used burned poorly, and genuine coal was worth a good amount of money. His happiness was rudely interrupted by a torrent of yelling and whooping coming from a nearby tunnel.

Drake crept down the passageway towards a growing light at the other end. the yelling and whooping continued, and Drake wondered what the others had found down there.

His own question was answered several seconds later as the tunnel ended in a sheer cliff face. Down below perhaps a hundred feet and in a ravine were the 20 MineTex miners that had ventured into this particular cavern. Drake could also pick out the faces of Priscilla, Gordon, and Marie among them. His eyes took in the incredible scene. The main cavern also ended in the cliff face opposite him, and the miners were scrambling down hastily-placed rope to the floor of the ravine. Next, he noticed that almost half the ravine floor was a lava pool. And on the other side of the lava pool was a vein of diamonds.

Diamonds. Like any true miner (and many noobs that day), Drake's eyes widened and he took an involuntary step forward at the sight of the mineral. Truly it was a gem to die for, as veteran miners had put it, and Drake realized with a shudder that these people were going to die if they didn't stop crowding that one measly piece of rope. The MineTex representative was already at the bottom with most of the group, directing them to shove bits stone into the lava to form an impromptu, not to mention extremely unsafe, bridge to the diamonds.

As the last of the miners started down the rope, disaster struck; fearful of being the last ones on the ravine floor, and thereby missing the diamonds, the miners that remained in the cavern crowded the rope even more closely. Stupidly, the rope had been secured on gravel, and now the gravel lost its structure and gave way, collapsing and sending the rope, the miners, and any hope of escaping crashing down to the cold ravine floor.

Horrified, Drake shared that particular emotion with every other person in earshot. Excited cheering gave way to a low groan and gasp combination that clearly illustrated the miner's position. They were stuck, near bedrock, in a ravine that might take days to get out of. Still, though, there might have been hope – had monsters not started pouring down the slippery slope that the collapsing gravel had formed. Drawn to the extremely loud sound of the gravel collapsing, not to mention the miner's voices, numerous zombies slid down the slope towards the miners.

At the same time, as if to remind the miners they had no hope, a couple of new monsters showed up at the top of the now inaccessible main cave. Drake recognized them – they were rather unmistakable. Horrific, walking skeletons that were armed with bows began to rain arrows down on the miners. Luckily their aim was poor, but more monsters were showing up with every passing second. The cave system must have been larger than expected, and monsters were being drawn to this ravine from all over.

Drake belatedly realized he was the only one who might be able to help them for the time being. Surely MineTex would send a rescue time at dusk when an entire group of miners failed to show up, but something told Drake that they might not survive until that time. Reaching for his clock, he discovered it was only a few hours past lunchtime. Anyways, it was springtime and dusk was beginning to come late. Drake decided that the others might want to know he was up here, safe and most definitely not trapped at the bottom of a ravine.

"Hey! Guys!" he yelled down at the top of his lungs.

Sadly, no one seemed to notice his voice over the din of their own impassioned cries for help and discussions on how they might help themselves. Desperate and annoyed at their ignorance, Drake kicked a bunch of pebbles off the edge of the cliff edge, trying to get the attention of someone.

Drake groaned when the shower of pebbles fell atop Marie, who was trying to find a place to climb up. Confused, she looked around, and finally glanced upward to see Drake standing a hundred feet above her and waving his arms.

Marie shrugged, wondering what Drake could possibly do up there. Next, it came to her that he might need help, forget his apparent fear of monsters. She spotted a way to get up. Marie began to slowly climb up a long vein of gravel towards Drake, smashing out bits of the sheer cliff face with her hand to get a better grip.

Drake was impressed. Not many people would have the courage to do _that_, he was sure. Or, maybe, she had forgotten his warning about gravel when she saw his cowardly performance to the zombie. It struck Drake that she might die because of his lack of monster experience, inadvertently.

That one thought galvanized him into action, especially after the gravel that Marie was grasping on to was beginning to give way.

For Marie's part, she was starting to curse herself for not heeding Drake's warning about the sorry stability of gravel. It seemed like a good idea at the time, to try and climb out of this situation, but now she was trapped on the cliff face. She was relatively safe if she stayed still, but if she moved she would weaken the fragile structure of the gravel further. At least she was out of the reach of those monsters that were attacking the miners below.

A second later, Marie looked up, and saw something she hadn't really expected.

Drake carefully leapt off the edge of the cliff. He coolly stabbed his pickaxe into the gravel, and slid down about fifteen feet to Marie. He held his hand out, having made sure only to slide down as far as absolutely necessary before twisting his pickaxe and stopping his descent. A little stunned by his daring entrance, Marie took the hand, and Drake lifted her up above him with surprising ease. She grabbed on to the edge of the cliff, and hauled herself up.

Common sense dictated that she should reach down and help Drake up. That she did, and internally she was beginning to regret her earlier judgmental nature when compared to the almost casual way he had jumped down to help her. Perhaps he had a phobia to monsters, but he was certainly brave when faced with other, more natural dangers.

She was about to apologize as Drake hauled himself up over the edge of the cliff, panting from the sudden exertion, but she was interrupted by a load moan coming from down the passageway they were in. Actually, several loud moans. Marie whirled to face multiple zombies advancing down the passageway. She ran to meet them, trusting that Drake would have a plan to save the others like he did for her.

Drake had a plan, but not a good one. It revolved around one simple fact: there was something else that made up the wall of the cliff besides the gravel Marie had climbed. Coal. Very bad quality coal, but the vein reached all the way down to the ravine floor, and therefore to the trapped miners. Coal weakened the rock, Drake knew, and if he could unbalance it enough, destroy the structure that held the wall together, he could cause a collapse that might help the situation.

Hearing Marie's grunts behind him as she held the zombie's at bay put new urgency into him. He stood directly on the beginning of the coal vein to get a better swing, and began to furiously beat at the coal with his pickaxe.

The miners below had noticed Drake because they had watched Marie climb up, the gravel, and all eyes were now on him after his daring rescue. The MineTex representative, Priscilla, and Gordon seemed to be the only ones who recognized what he was now doing, and began to yell and shove the gawking miners away from the area that the debris would collapse into. For some reason, the MineTex representative was smiling, it appeared.

Seconds later, far sooner than Drake had expected, the entire coal vein completely gave way. He had planned to jump out of the way at the first signs of collapse, but it was too late. Surrounded by fallen zombies, Marie turned around to see what the noise was, and the last she saw of Drake was his body being pitched forward and falling down along with the rush of debris and broken stone and coal.

"No!" she exclaimed.

Drake's eyes ever so slowly began to creep open as he jerked back into reality.

The first thing he could think of was _Am I dead?_

No, he wasn't; Drake was pretty sure life in the afterlife, or Aether, or whatever, pain wasn't a problem. But sure enough, every limb in his body was on fire. At least they weren't broken, or anything. He could move them around without a noticeable increase in the pain. Where was he? Last thing he remembered had been falling with the coal and stone down… and then nothing.

He finally was able to blink his eyes open. Light flooded in, and then and there he knew he was aboveground, at least. No torch was able to light up a cavern that much. For that matter, caves were never that bright, period. Even lava wasn't that bright. Glorious sunlight.

"H-hello?" he managed to say.

"Drake!" Marie yelled, giving him the best bear hug she could for her size, and pulling him up from the tree stump he was sitting against.

"Eh…hi." he said, self-conscious now that he realized the 20 other miners were standing around them. He'd never been hugged like this in a crowd – come to think of it, he'd never been hugged by a girl his age, ever.

They awkwardly stood there for almost a minute when Marie finally broke away, apparently noticing everyone else staring as well.

"How am I alive?" Drake asked, "I fell like a hundred feet."

The MineTex representative stepped forward. "I guess you're very lucky Thomas," he said, a strange glint in his eye, "after the coal and stone fell, the wall to that passageway was so scarred and broken it was easy for us to climb up. I daresay you saved us all." he said, eliciting a cheer from the miners, and an ashamed look from Marie.

The man stepped closer and softly whispered in his ear, "And, best of all, you and the girl made this entire trip worth it. You passed the test."

"Wha-" Drake started to ask.

The representative stood up and smiled. "I think it's time for a celebration! For our continued lives, and these two!" he yelled, pointing to Ragonsworth, and referring to its taverns.

Marie looked as confused as Drake was, asking "What did I do?"

They stood there with the MineTex representative until the rest of the miners filtered out, joining the main body of MineTex workers that had set out for the Gorgobad Mountains.

When they had left, the man turned to face them. "You both showed bravery and compassion for your fellow miners today. Both of you tried to help us, it's just Drake was slightly mreo successful." Nodding at Marie, he continued, "Plus, Marie, you slayed a number of monsters protecting Drake. Now here's the reason I said what I said to you two."

The man smiled. "All across Minecraftia today, we sent out massive teams of miners like this one to find people like you. People who are selfless, brave, and have great potential for amazing skills. People who are able to react to changing situations and make the best of them. I saw that in both of you today. You may disagree, but trust me. I can tell those things."

"You passed the test. if you would be so kind as to accept, I'd like to meet you two by the MineTex stall tomorrow in the morning for a very special job, one I'm sure you can't resist. it's not even really a job…but that's for later. Take your time."

The man's smile grew broader. "Anyways, we have a party to attend to. In your honor."

Marie and Drake could only glance at each other in confusion as the MineTex representative walked off, chuckling to himself.

He turned. "Oh, and by the way, the name's Jay. See ya at the tavern!"

**Ok, a bit of an awkward ending, but still. That is a lot of words. Next chapter, expect to see a MAJOR plot twist. You shall see...heh heh heh.**

**R&R, and have a nice - no, have an epicawesomecompletelyamazing simplystunning day. **

**Until next time, EpicPwner333 signing out!**


	3. Indev Island

**Profuse apologies on the wait, whomever liked this story. Anyways, no action in this chapter, but we ARE getting to one of the major plot points here. Hang on and enjoy the ride! If you know the history of Minecraft, you should understand the last line, as there will be no A/N at the end. I want you to think about what's happening next! It all shall be explained next chapter!**

Several hours after arriving back at Ragonsworth, and outside of the largest tavern in the city, Marie and Drake finally stumbled out through the back door. The celebration had gone on long through the night, and both teens had grown more uncomfortable by the minute. Most of the miners, including Priscilla and Gordon, were completely drunk and were singing boisterous songs together in the large tavern. Drake and Marie had been applauded and told they were heroes, but more than that they had been offered too many potions to count.

Neither had much of a taste for potions, and recognizing it was only a matter of time before a bar fight or something like that broke out, the two managed to slip out. The MineTex representative – well, Jay, as he was now called – had merely sat back in a stool in a corner and laughed at the jokes being made for most of the time. A few minutes he had crept out, probably needing his sleep for whatever was to happen tomorrow. Both teens had taken that as a sign that it was OK to leave.

"So, um, Marie. Where are you staying?" Drake asked as they ran from shadow to shadow. Drunks and alert guards who were searching for said drunks were everywhere.

"In that cheap little inn down by Forhagns Street." she answered.

Drake stopped. "Wait, what? That's the inn I'm staying in!"

"Well lucky you," she teased, "at least you won't have to worry about zombie's killing you with me hanging around."

Drake's face fell. She still hadn't forgotten about that. "Uh, yeah. That was pathetic, you were right. Sorry about that, it won't happen again."

Marie was legitimately surprised at his reaction to her playful tease. For her part, Marie thought Drake had left that behind, back in that little passageway somewhere underneath the Gorgobad Mountains.

Marie chose not to respond with words. She instead flashed Drake the most heartwarming, beaming smile she could. What happened? I don't seem to remember anything bad… the expression seemed to say.

Drake smiled back, and together they walked into the inn through the side door. There was another party going on in the main entrance that doubled as a small pub, and they wanted to avoid the shock of getting a potion bottle smashed over their head. Instead, they got an even greater shock.

They walked into the hallway that their rooms were located in, and found Jay standing inside it, casually leaning against the wall, a thin ghost of a smile playing out across his lips.

Needless to say, neither teen had quite been expecting that. Drake was first to react.

"Um, Jay, what are you doing here?" Drake asked.

Marie nodded. "Yeah, isn't just a little bit stalkish?"

Jay smirked. "Ah, but a genuine stalker does not show up in front of the subject's residence. I am here to accelerate the job offer of sorts that MineTex has for you. I assumed that you would need the morning to get over your hangovers, but seeing as you have left the party early I believe the time is ripe…"

Marie frowned. "Ripe for what?"

Jay just motioned to a storage closet. "In here."

Marie and Drake warily followed him. Once inside to pitch-black room, Jay flipped a lever on the wall and a glowstone lamp above them flicked on, revealing the insides of a room that definitely did not look like a storage closet. it was clean and empty of almost anything. The only things anything inside the room were two beds, two chests, and a small shard of a purple crystal set on a small stool in the middle of it all.

Drake spoke for both of them. "And what is here?"

"Get down on those beds, please." Jay ordered briskly.

"What do you mean?"

"Please" Jay said again, louder and sharper.

Confused, but seeing no other choice, Marie and Drake lay down on their respective beds. They twisted their heads to see what Jay was now doing to the crystal.

He pulled out a bottle of water, and carefully splashed a small amount of the liquid onto the crystal. Immediately, the crystal began to glow fiercely. The teen's eyes widened, but before they could ask Jay for an explanation, he smiled and said "Happy dreams, guys. See you around."

Almost as soon as he exited the room and shut the door, things began to happen. The glow seemed to stop coming from inside the crystal; now it filled the entire room. It was coming from everywhere. Strangely enough, the glow was white, not purple like the color of the crystal. Soon, the light became too bright. Drake and Marie shut their eyes at the same time, and soon they lapsed into unconsciousness. The last thing either remembered was the soft white light.

* * *

_Time. What is it? What is this noble concept? Is it a physical force that manifests itself in the progression of secular events? Or is it simply the speed at which our brain processes information and presents it, for in dreams when our brains function faster time is slowed down in comparison to reality? Truly, we do not know that answer._

_As they seemingly lapsed out of their stupor, Drake and Marie felt as if they were in a world without time. Their perception of reality became distorted in the hazy whiteness of their existence. Centuries could have passed; on the other hand, only seconds may have gone by. They lay in that state, separate but apart, a term that was to be of the utmost importance in their lives. But that was for the future… for now, the two teenagers were beginning to fall back into consciousness. Or was it? Was this state another world, another dimension, somewhere where you existed? That would be a question that the two asked themselves every time they came to this place. I must stop. I am getting ahead of myself. In ways you surely cannot fathom_.

* * *

Drake slowly opened his eyes, blinking at the harsh sunlight that assaulted them as he did so. He slowly held his hand up in front of his face, trying to recall why he was waking up spread-eagle on some rather hard grass. Slowly, memories filtered back – of leaving Filsborough, going to Ragonsworth, going on that MineTex expedition, saving those miners, Jay leading them to that room… them. Marie. Where was she?

"Marie!" he called out into the light.

"I'm here!" she yelled right back, her voice seeming to come from right next to him.

"Where are we?"

"I have no idea."

Drake looked around. As far as he could tell, nothing had changed. Everything was a soft white. His gaze rested on a single point. A hand. Just there, small and feminine. He couldn't make sense of it – the hand was as clear as day, but at the wrist it tapered off into the glow. It was right next to him. A thought struck him, and he cautiously reached out … and took the hand.

The grasped the hand tightly, the only other thing in this world besides himself. He had no idea what was happening… a voice interrupted.

"Uh, Drake?"

Oh, yeah. Marie was here too… somewhere.

"Yes?"

"Is that your hand, just floating there? 'Cause it just grabbed mine."

Drake opened his mouth to answer, but at that moment the world began to change. Colors began to swirl out of the glow. Shapes began to appear, but nothing definite. Without warning, Drake felt as if he were falling. Down, down, down… and finally, the world blinked out.

* * *

For the second time in a few minutes, Drake opened his eyes. This time, the world was as plain as can be. He was in the middle of a small field of swaying tall grass, with a grove of trees and a small stone structure at one end. Twisting his head, he sighted a small stone tower on a hill. Over a hill to the right was an unknown area at the moment. The landmass he was on was suspiciously narrow. Lo and behold, the ground simply ended in many places. Drake shook his head, trying to make sense of this new world.

He saw Marie lying down next to him. Shakily rising to his feet, he stood over the red-haired girl and helped her up. Together, they silently surveyed the rather small landscape stretching out before them. Drake turned to her.

"Where are we?"

Marie shrugged her shoulders, and walked to the edge of the landmass they were on. Drake stood where he was till he heard Marie visibly gasp, her hand flying to her mouth. He ran over, and gasped as well. Nothing. Nothing was in front of them. The land simply dropped off and receded backwards under their feet. The sky stretched out before them without a clear end in sight. Wispy clouds trundled about far below them, and under that Drake couldn't make out any ground. As far as he knew, their little island was all there was to this world – were they floating? Was this place just hanging in the air?

Drake glanced back down, and was suddenly struck by an overwhelming sense of vertigo. He stumbled back, and when he was a good ten feet from the edge he stopped and doubled up as if he was to throw up. In fact, he felt a horrible feeling of nausea sweeping over him but managed to keep his food down. Glancing around, he saw Marie standing there arms folded across her chest, grinning at him.

"How are you so calm about this!?" Drake gasped.

"It's a pretty long story." she said. A second later, she frowned and continued, "But no, I have no idea where we are at the moment. You think it had something to do with that crystal Jay showed us?"

"It had everything to do with that crystal, my friends!" a familiar voice informed them from across the meadow.

Startled, Drake and Marie whirled in the direction the voice came from. From the stone tower, a tall figure casually ambled through the tall grass of the field, the golden stalks gently swaying in the breeze

Drake glanced at Marie, and the two began walking toward the rapidly approaching figure. A minute later, as the man's features began to finally stand out in the light haze that seemed to be everywhere on this floating island, a strong gust of wind blew over the landmass. Instinctively, both teens raised their arms above their faces and shut their eyes.

As soon as they did so, the breeze died out as quickly as it came. Blinking their eyes open, they could scarcely believe their eyes: the figure was gone. Simply gone. The trail of trampled grass ended right where they last saw him, and did not lead anywhere else. Both teens realized that there was no way the man could have ran back to the tower in the time they had had their eyes closed.

"Where did he go?!" Marie exclaimed.

"Not that far."the voice spoke from behind them. Drake and Marie whirled.

Standing only a few feet away was the MineTex representative, otherwise known as Jay. He looked a lot different now: instead of nondescript clothing and a pair of nice shoes, he had a tough leather jacket, a large tool belt hooked diagonally across his chest that held a number of strange objects neither Drake nor Marie had any idea of, jeans, a sword at his side, and a small backpack slung across his shoulders.

"Jay?" Drake asked, dumbfounded.

"The one and only." he said, smirking.

"How did you get there? That was you?" Maire said for clarification.

"Yes, it was. Nice of you to join us, by the way." he responded.

"Wait, 'us'? Where are we?" Drake asked.

Jay smiled and started walking toward the tower. He waved his hand for them to follow. "Everyone that has arrived here has asked that same question. Not that I blame you, or them in any way. Just come with me and I'll explain everything. You were the last two who were coming here."

Lacking any other options, Drake and Marie followed him.

"Where are we?" Drake repeated as they walked along.

Jay shook his head. "You're not going to really understand this at will only make sense when I explain it inside."

"Please just tell us where we are. Surely this place has a name!" Marie pressed.

"Fine, It won't make sense now...but..."

"Just tell us."

Jay smiled as he opened the door to the tower.

"Welcome to Indev Island."


	4. The Dev Team

**And, I'm back! Sorry about the wait, I was working on my HTTYD fanfic that I had forgotten for the sake of this story, but everything is now back to normal! This chapter is going to set the stage for a large portion of the plot, I believe...**

Drake paused at the edge of the doorway.

"Indev Island? What's 'Indev'?" he asked.

Jay motioned for them to follow him inside. "It will all make sense in a few minutes. Come on."

Drake shook his head and walked in after the MineTex representative, Marie close at his heels. The tower had not been very large, but the inside seemed bigger that the initial impression, Drake realized.

Inside the tower's first floor where they walked in was some random equipment hanging seemingly on every available nook and cranny on the wall. A small table with a map had been placed in the middle of the floor, and large, locked chests were randomly scattered about. A ladder leading up through the ceiling was attached to the far wall, and Jay headed straight for it, disregarding all the equipment strewn about.

Again, Jay motioned for them to follow him and he quickly bounded up the narrow wooden rungs. Lacking any other alternative, Drake followed him. Pulling himself into the second floor, Drake held his hand out to Marie and helped her up the last few rungs. Next, he turned around to see where Jay had went. As he did so, he became aware of voices. Different voices.

Drake was rather surprised to see not one, but three people in the room, lounging around on the numerous couches and chairs spread out around a large table. Jay was there, in his odd clothing, but Drake realized he had the odd clothing. Everyone was wearing clothing similar to Jay's adventurish attire.

Seated at the corner in a comfortable position was a small, petite girl who constantly glanced around in a scared sort of way. No, shy was more like it, Drake thought. Her short black hair was cut into bangs, and a large (for her size) backpack was on her lap as she rifled through it.

Next was a guy lying down on a thick layer of blankets, tinkering with some sort of mechanical device - it vaguely resembled a crossbow. His heavy leather jacket was studded with small, fine tools and little odds and ends that Drake could see no use for. His wavy blond hair fit in perfectly with his pale skin, like he'd spent too little time in the rays of the sun.

"Nice to meet you two!" Marie spoke from behind, startling both and causing to jump up in their positions.

"Make that three." a voice whispered from...above them?

Marie and Drake glanced up sharply, and saw a figure hiding in the shadowy roof supports above them. A second after they had spotted him, he jumped down and landed lightly on his feet, barely making a noise. The figure wore a dark cloak with a blackened iron chestplate, held in place by two straps intersecting in the middle of his chest. Various knives and pouches covered his clothing, and what seemed to be a katana was strapped to his back, the handle appearing above his right significantly, a hood covered his face.

Moments later, the man swiftly lifted the hood up off his head, exposing his face. A light beard grew on his chin, but more noticeably a long, jagged, wicked-looking scar ran up his right cheek and went straight through his right eye, turning to organ a deathly pale. Needless to say, Drake and Marie were creeped out by...well, everything about this guy. None of the other people in the room seemed to be put off by the guy dropping from the ceiling, however, so Drake had to assume he was friendly.

"Who are you?" Drake asked.

"Who are you?" the creepy assassin dude shot back with a grin.

Jay looked up. "Since we're all here now, let's get acquainted with each other, shall we? You know my name, Jay Nichols of MineTex, field head of the Dev Initiative."

Drake was about to ask what the "Dev Initiative" was, but something told him Jay would explain it later. He figured that it wouldn't hurt to be the first to introduce himself to the group.

"My name's Thomas Drake. I'm from... does that even matter anymore, Jay?" he said, then asked as the realization came to him.

"You'll be back to our world soon enough. Again, I'll explain it all." Jay reassured him.

"Ok then, I'm from Filsborough, near Ragonsworth, which was where I was when Jay put this purple crystal in this room, and...do you guys know of a purple crystal?"

Everyone nodded.

"So, yeah.. and there, I met Marie." he said, motioning at the redhead.

"Hello, yes, my name is Marie Jacobs, I'm from Ducres." she said.

Satisfied by their introductions, the blond guy sat up and set down his little crossbow-machine. "Name's Gerald. Gerald Fornar. I live in Ihola City. Jay brought me in as an Engineer."

Next to speak was the girl. "Julia. Julia Peters. Jay told me I was the Biologist." she said in a quiet, mousy voice. Somehow, Drake thought that she wasn't exactly sure on her role.

The creepy hood dud was the last to speak. "Call me Kilo. I'm the Assassin."

Julia looked at him. "Just Kilo? No last name? No home city?" she inquired.

Kilo frowned. "As I recall, you didn't say your hometown either. I need no name. Who I am is not important."

Gerald raised his eyebrows. "That's kinda creepy, man."

Drake shook his head, "Wait, you guys each said Jay assigned you a role. Jay, what's my role?"

Jay laughed. "Easy, you're the Miner. You friend Marie here is the Scout."

"And all these titles mean what...? Drake asked.

"They correspond to your specific skill and role in the team. This team." Jay responded. Before any more questions could be put out, Jay continued,

"Now it's time, I believe, to explain what this whole thing is about. You see, two months ago a MineTex-sponsored expedition under adventurer Clys Ironfar discovered a large number of these purple crystals on a faraway island, Juna Island, to be exact, in the Eastern Sea. At the same time, our rival company, one IroInc, sent a similar expedition to Juna Island and uncovered a similar stash of blue crystals. As far as we can tell, the two different colors perform the exact same function."

Here Kilo interrupted. "And what function would that be?"

Jay smiled. "To take someone to the Dev Dimension, of course," Jay raised his hand, "and before you all ask what that Nether that is, I'll explain. When word got out to the Minecraftian Government of our mutual discoveries, they secretly told us that four months previous Notch Himself had told our King that he would let us humble players delve into our worlds past. He specifically stated that we, and I quote, 'Deserved to know our past'."

"We named the place that the crystals take us to upon being doused with water the Dev Dimension because we believe that this universe is, in effect, in 'development'. Our world, as far as we can tell, was developed in several stages. The only one we've been to, the one that the crystal takes you to, the one we are in right now, is the Indev version."

"The only thing here when I first arrived was this island and that little stone structure across the field. Inside is a portal made of dirt. I know - sounds stupid. We believe going through that portal will lead us to the next stage of development. Indev appears to be the first, the forerunner of our world. MineTex has assembled you to be the team that goes to these places. Some of MineTex's leadership debated we should send in a veteran team of our Security Task Force, but it was decided that since we might meet our ancestors and such, it would be wise to take special, but still fairly normal and kind people with me to these new worlds. It also appears that IroInc is assembling a similar team, and we cannot allow them to be the ones with the secrets of our past in their hands.."

Everyone looked a little overwhelmed by the lengthy explanation, but Drake found a question almost immediately. "Wait... so have we been, like, teleported here?"

Jay shook his head. "No, no. You see, your bodies are still in the 'real world'. It seems that your consciousness, your soul, I guess, is taken here and manifested in this world. That's why you all are doing this at night - it would seem like you're sleeping."  
Marie spoke up. "Wait, so if we're just lying there, can't someone just come in and kill us, or steal our stuff?"

"Unlikely. Tests have shown that an hour here translates to roughly ten minutes in the real world. If we die here, then we 'wake up' in the real world."

"So, we're dreaming?" Julia asked.

"Nope. All attempts to stimulate real body's senses while you are in the Dev Dimension have no effect. As far as it appears, everything that makes you, well, you is transported here." Jay clarified.  
Gerald perked up. "How?"

"Magic!" Jay said with an entirely straight face, then cracked a goofy grin. "Just kidding, it's probably not magic. But for all we know, that could be it."

"So neither MineTex nor this... IroInc? Neither know how we get here." Gerald said to make it clear.

"It's our job to find out." Jay said.

"How will being here help us find out how we got here?" Marie asked.

"Notch said something else to our king. He said that we would find all the answers if we looked for them. That's exactly what we're doing here." Jay responded.

"So, do we just explore Indev Island here?" Drake asked.

"Nope. Get all the gear you need, and meet at the stone structure across the field." Jay said as he climbed down the leader. Before he fully disappeared, he turned to them. "We travel to a new world, my friends."

* * *

After the rest of the Dev Team had left, Drake and Marie met downstairs to equip themselves. Drake strapped on a hardened leather utility chestplate, one with plenty of pockets. Next, he sheathed a iron sword and shouldered a backpack, throwing in water, food, flint and steel, and torches.

Remembering his role in the team, he grabbed an iron pickaxe off the wall and tied it to his back. Finally, he looped a utility strap across his chest and attached a dagger and some mining TNT sticks.

Turning, he saw Marie had found an iron rapier that somehow looked exactly like the one she had in the real world. She had a backpack as well, and a chest strap. Drake didn't know what she had gotten, but he assumed it was survival gear as well. Together, they walked out the door and across the field.

* * *

The rest of the Dev Team was already inside, staring at the dirt portal. The portal itself was blue. Everyone looked ready to go, but Gerald had one more question.

"Are we getting paid for this?" he asked.

That whimsical query completely broke the air of tension that had been around the Dev Team ever since Jay had told them of what they were doing here, and Jay was immensely grateful for that. The best thing that could happen for them would be to go through the portal in a light mood, and here it was.

Perhaps Notch was really with them.

Getting back to reality - or, actually the Dev Dimension, Jay realized with an amused grunt, he had to tell the truth, which wasn't that bad. Not that bad at all...

"You will receive 100 emerald shards for every week you spend here. Oh, by the way, that translates to roughly two nights worth of time in reality, so you won't be starving any time soon as long as you work for us. The real reward, however, is that whatever you find or create in the Dev Dimension you can bring into reality." he said.

"Wait, how does that work?" Gerald asked.

Jay gave him one of his signature smirks. "In due time. I don't think we need a lengthy explanation now." he said as he walked towards the surface of the portal.

He paused at the threshold of the portal, and turned to the Dev Team, who were starting to follow him. "Anyways, we have a new dimension to explore."

He stepped into the portal, leaving ripples in the surface. Kilo was right behind him, unsheathing his katana at the same time. Gerald shrugged his shoulders, and followed him. After him Julia crept in, apparently afraid to be left alone.

Marie and Drake looked at each other. Without a word, they walked into the portal at the same time.

And into Infdev.

**Review please!**


	5. Alpha

**I think this sets a record for the longest space between chapter updates for me. I'm sorry. This is an important chapter as it solidifies the plot of exploring their world's past "versions" and all that. It's summer vacation now, and with no school/finals to screw up my writing I think I'm going to seriously revive this story. Cheerio!**

As Drake stepped through the portal, less things happened than he really had expected. Nothing dramatic at all, really. When Drake had been a little boy, he had always believed that there existed another world in a mirror. He had thought that he could simply step through the mirror into a completely different world. Obviously that notion had fallen flat when he had grown up, but now it was the first thing he thought of.

It was more than simply strolling through an open door, this portal. It was like stepping through a mirror. It was almost disappointing, really. He'd been expecting to be twisted and shaped and molded through time and space . . . or something like that, at least.

Drake's first reaction to this new world was to raise his hand. The sunlight was blinding. Well, that wasn't really the correct term. The sunlight was different. Nothing like he'd ever experienced. Drake could vaguely make out the shapes of his fellow Dev Team members around him, not moving as well.

Finally after a minute or so, Drake's eyes adjusted to the new sunlight. He was standing in the middle of a grassy plateau. Behind him was the portal they had stepped out of. All around them were cliffs that led down to a forest that surrounded the entire base of the plateau. Beyond that, Drake couldn't tell. There apparently was a thick fog in this world. A very strange fog, as it started exactly at the edge of the forest.

"Is everyone OK?" Jay asked, adjusted to the sunlight as well.

"I'm fine." Drake responded.

"Never been better." Kilo remarked with his trademark grin.

"Good." Julia whispered.

"Just fantastic." Gerald muttered as he fiddled with his crossbow-thing, presumably to make sure it worked.

"Everything's OK." Marie said lastly.

"So . . . what now?" Gerald asked, voicing the question everyone had on their minds. "Are we just here to admire the foggy scenery?"

At that, Julia looked rather surprised.

"That wouldn't be such a bad idea . . ." Drake heard Julia mutter under her breath.

Heedless of her comment, Jay responded promptly. He'd obviously given this some thought beforehand. "We start exploring, to see what we can find. All that stuff back on Indev Island happened to exhaust the resources there. Our goal should be to create a base near the portal here, and stock up on supplies."

"Sounds good." Kilo said.

Jay held his hand up. "Not done yet. I want everyone to keep an eye out for any members of IroInc that might be out there."

Jay stopped and turned, looking out past the portal, his eyes fixing on a point behind the Dev Team. "Question answered." he stated simply.

Taking their cue, the Dev Team turned as one to see what he was staring at. There, past the edge of the plateau, past the forest, a large river, and another forest, was an eerily similar-looking plateau. What was most odd, however, was that the fog had suddenly decided to pull back in that narrow corridor, allowing them to see this large land feature. Everywhere else around them, the fog cut off view past the forest.**  
**

"What's on that plateau?" Julia asked, squinting at it intently.

Unable to see anything on the slightly hazy landmass, Drake shrugged. Glancing at Marie, he gave her a look of disbelief, one that she reciprocated. Gerald, Kilo, and Jay looked just as clueless.

Jay reached for his backpack and swiftly pulled out a pair of binoculars. Holding it up to his eyes, he let out an audible groan.

"IroInc." he stated, grimacing. "They're already here." He held the binoculars out to Drake, who took it.

Marie grabbed the binocs eagerly, and the two each looked through one lens at the neighboring plateau. A small group of six people were clustered around a little flag that was fluttering energetically in the wind. Behind them was a small building that seemed to bear a strong resemblance to the one the Dev Team was standing next to.

The figures on the plateau were distorted by the haze, and Drake couldn't make out any features. The IroInc team didn't seem to notice them yet.

"Well then. That changes things." Jay observed. "Drake, Marie!" he called.

"Yes?" they replied in unison.

"Get down this rock and on the side that faces away from the IroInc. Search for resources. We'll need them to deal with IroInc." Jay instructed them. They started to leave, but he held his hand up. "Wait. I need to give you something."

Jay reached into his backpack and pulled out a small rectangular box made of iron, with a mesh exposing its innards on one side. Inside, a greenish orb pulsed. The only other things on the box were a mini stone button and a thin wire that went straight into the air.

"An Ender Radio." Drake breathed. "Where'd you get one of those?" he asked. They were rather high tech, after all. It was hardly likely that Jay had found an Ender Pearl, transformed it into an Ender Eye, and then procured surgical tools to cobble all the parts together into one, intricate device, after all.

Jay gave him one of his signature smiles. "I have my ways." he responded.

"And . . . us?" Gerald inquired from the side.

"Eh, right. Kilo, I want you to scout out IroInc's positions." Jay said.

"Wait, aren't I the scout?" Marie asked, frowning at his apparent ignorance.

"I believe in keeping friends together, to maximize efficiency," Jay explained, then continued, "I mean, we should be fine friends before this whole thing is over, but I refer to friends from before the Dev Team was formed. You two are a good example. So are Gerald and Julia." he explained, nodding his head at the two other team members whose names he had mentioned.

"I'd call it passively being aware of each other's existence." Gerald corrected, scratching the back of head. "I wouldn't say we were great friends."

"Ah, but that'll pass for now!" Jay laughed, earning a dubious look from Gerald. "Erm, right, you two are probably wondering on what your assgnments will be. To put it simply - you're gonna build our base here in Infdev."

"Just the two of us?" Julia asked. "We're not exactly going to get _that_ much done."

"Add me to that equation. I'll stay behind to help build and coordinate our two teams in the field." Jay said.

"So, like, coordinate three people?" Marie observed, raising an eyebrow.

"Yup. I was one of the only people in MineTex's board of director's that wanted a small team to explore the Dev Dimension. Everyone else wanted to build a giant building, hire a crapload of miners, wet the crystal, and send an army in. I won." Jay said, grinning.

"Well then. So we're alone, besides that group of IroInc people waaay over there?" Kilo asked for confirmation.

"Along with everything we find in these dimensions, yes. For now." Jay answered, facial expression suddenly turning thoughtful.

"For now . . . ?" Drake repeated.

"The farther we go into the Dev Dimension, conceivably the more there is to explore. We think that if you shape the purple crystals a certain way, you're taken to different Indev Islands - therefore, the possibility exists of us being joined by similar teams if we succeed." Jay said for clarification.

"Sheesh . . ." Marie muttered.

"Perhaps that was a bit much." Jay admitted. "We're a _long_ way from that contingency ever happening, so let's focus on right here and now. IroInc's got the head start. "

"Yes, they must have. We wasted quite a bit of time." Julia observed.

"Well then, let's get to work. Here." Jay said, handing Kilo an Ender Radio.

Drake and Marie just stood there, unsure of what exactly "get to work" meant. Jay noticed them, and simply pointed towards the edge of the plateau. Shrugging, Drake spun around and started for the edge, Marie right beside him.

Without a word, they reached the edge. Looking down, they saw it wasn't a straight cliff - still, it was a steep and rocky face, and commanded some respect. With barely a moment's hesitation, Drake leaped off the edge and onto a ledge almost ten feet below. Noticing the lack of a certain red-haired teen beside him, Drake looked up.

"Marie?" he asked to her face, the only visible part of her body that was leaning over the edge.

"How do you do that?!" she exclaimed.

"Do what? Jump?" Drake asked in confusion.

"No silly, I mean - well, sort of, yeah, jump. How do you just jump off a cliff that with no hesitation whatsoever? I thought you were afraid of heights!" she said from above him.

"I got scared on Indev Island 'cause there was _no_ floor in sight. Admit it, you were a little taken back." Drake responded.

"Well, a little. But seeing you freak out there made me forget all about it." Marie explained with a chuckle, remembering Drake's almost comical terror. After that little lapse, she then proceeded to climb down the rocky half-cliff

"Riiight. All I do is forget everything else and focus on that one little ledge I'll jump on to."

"That seems like a sorta difficult to do." Marie muttered, shaking her head.

"I can teach you some time. It's the only interesting thing my town had to offer." Drake sighed as Marie joined him at the ledge.

"How to jump off of things?" Marie asked in a teasing tone of voice.

"No! Well, yes in way. You see, there was this - hey!" Drake yelled the last part, noticing Marie was slipping nimbly down the rock face without him. "Wait up! Do you really think Jay would want us just wander off separately?"

Marie's response was flashing a cheeky smile at him, and redoubling her efforts at descending. Drake caught on at what she was trying to do, and jumped off the ledge to another one farther down, again and again, quickly gaining on the redhead. With one last leap, he reached a ledge that was practically touching the top of one of the rather tall trees that made up the surrounding forest.

"No fair!" Marie called out from _way_ above him as he grabbed on to a branch and started down. "Trees!?"

Reaching the bottom after a minute or so, Drake paused to take in the forest floor. Everything was so . . . still. Almost unnaturally so. Actually, _definetely _unnatural, on second thought. The actual ground was completely devoid of normal branches, leaves, bushes, and, well . . . everything but grass. No wind, animals, even sound!

A second after Drake had thought the latter, he was disabused of the notion. "Cheater." Marie pouted at him as she dropped down in front him from the rock face. "What now?" she continued, normal again.

"Uh, find resources?" Drake said, giving her look. "Like Jay said?"

"Right. Let's start chopping down trees!" she said, reaching for a stone axe clipped to her backpack.

Drake raised his arms, and Marie froze in alarm. "What?" she whispered.

"No, no, it's just . . . shouldn't we be searching for more valuable things?" Drake asked.

"Trees could be valuable." she deadpanned.

"Haha . . . no. I say we find a cave."

"A cave? Seriously? After what happened in the Gorgobad Mountains you still want to go into caves?" Marie asked, dumbfounded.

"Well, we can't exactly lug tree branches up the slope of that plateau, can we?" Drake shot back.

Marie started to retort, then stopped, a thoughtful look on her face. "Touché, Drake, touché." she admitted. Drake gave her a triumphant look.

"I'd love to bask in the glow of my verbal victory, but I think I should inform Jay of what we're doing first." Drake observed. Kneeling down, he slung his backpack off of his shoulders and dug around for bit, before coming up with the Ender Radio.

Holding it up to his mouth, he frowned when he realized he had no idea how to work this particular model. He turned to Marie and shrugged.

"Whatever. I'm sure we'll be fine." Marie said, not concerned over the lack of communication among the Dev Team, and Drake nodded.

As if on cue, ten steps farther and they came across a ravine that had previously been hidden by the forest. It was a fairly narrow ravine, as ravines went, in fact.

Drake stumbled back, gasping for breath. He had made the mistake of peering over the edge quickly. That friggin' thing was _bottomless_.

Marie laughed good-naturedly at him. "Heights got you again?"

Rapidly getting to his feet with a (fake) brave face on, Drake gave her his best heroic pose, and smirked. "Of course not! I've got over it."

Raising a disbelieving eyebrow, Marie asked "In the time span two hours?"

"Yes."

"Eh . . . nah. Unless you can fly, how are we getting down there?"

Drake paused, staring off at a point in the distance.

"What?" Marie asked again.

"Cave?" he said, nodding at said land feature in a nearby hill.

"I'm starting to hate caves . . ." Marie grumbled as she followed him to it, lighting a torch as she did so.

**So, yeah. Please review!**


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